150 ANATIDyE. 



to forty pairs, we were informed, annually had their nests. 

 We saw several old birds, and the nests that had been 

 used, which are concealed in heath upwards of three feet 

 in height, that covers the islands. The eggs were all 

 hatched, and most of the young had betaken themselves 

 to the neighbouring moors, where they continue till able 

 to fly, secreting themselves when disturbed, in the highest 

 heather. At Tongue we saw some goslings about a month 

 old (following a hen), which 'had been hatched from eggs 

 taken at Loch Laighal. We were told they became 

 nearly as tame as common geese, but refuse to intermix 

 or breed with them. The eggs, from five to seven in 

 number, are smaller than those of the common Goose, but 

 of a similar shape and colour. 



A few pairs, it is said, breed annually in Sunbiggin Tarn, 

 near Orton, in Westmoreland, and the islands of Lewis and 

 Harris, among the Hebrides, are also named as places re- 

 gularly visited by Bean Geese in summer, where, according 

 to Pennant, they feed on green corn to an injurious ex- 

 tent. A pair of Bean Geese belonging to the Ornitho- 

 logical Society of London, have this season produced a 

 brood of five, in St. James's Park : the young were ob- 

 served to grow very rapidly. The egg of a Bean Goose 

 brought from Norway, and given me by Mr. Hewitson, is 

 of a dull white ; three inches five lines long, by two inches 

 five lines in breadth. The eggs produced by the Bean 

 Goose in the park were a little smaller. The Bean Goose 

 is common during winter in Ireland, and in North Wales, 

 but is more rare in the southern counties of England, in- 

 creasing in frequency on going northward. Mr. Dann's 

 note on this species is as follows : " This Goose is said to 

 be very numerous on the north-west coast of Norway. 

 I have seen it in vast numbers on the Tornea river in Sep- 



